It is known to attach decorative ornaments to caskets to “personalize” the casket to the deceased. Examples of mechanisms for attaching generally three-dimensional “figurine” style ornaments to the exterior of a casket, for example to the corners of the casket shell, are shown in, for example, the assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,591,466, 6,928,706, 7,340,810 and 7,591,052, and US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0077579, all hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in their entireties. The casket corner ornaments of the '466, '706, and '810 patents, and the '579 publication, utilize fasteners with heads, for example shoulder screws, mounted on the rear side of the ornament, the heads of which are secured in keyhole slots, for example L-shaped keyhole slots, in the casket shell corners. These ornaments are commercially available from the assignee as its LIFESYMBOLS® line of casket shell corner ornaments.
Examples of mechanisms for attaching ornaments to the interior of a casket, for example to the cap panel mounted in the underneath side of the head end casket cap, are shown in, for example, the assignee's US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0299895, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety. One embodiment of the ornaments for attachment to the cap panel disclosed in the '895 publication utilizes one or more magnets mounted on the rear side of a generally two-dimensional “medallion” style ornament (a relatively thin, flat, circular medal, for example) for magnetically attaching the medallion to a magnetic cap panel. These ornaments are commercially available from the assignee as its LIFESTORIES® line of casket cap panel medallions.
It was desirable to be able to utilize the medallion ornaments with magnets thereon with the casket shell L-shaped keyhole slots so that the medallions could also be mounted on the casket shell corners. To that end, a casket ornament attachment mechanism of the type shown in the assignee's US Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0266423, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety, was devised. The '423 publication discloses a medallion casket ornament having at least one magnet mounted on the rear side thereof, and a magnetic adapter plate having at least one fastener with a head thereon mounted on the rear side thereof. The adapter plate is removably secured to the casket shell by inserting the head of the fastener in the keyhole groove of the casket shell and seating the head of the fastener in the keyhole groove. The casket ornament is then removably magnetically secured to the shell by positioning the magnet of the ornament on the adapter plate.
It was also desirable to be able to use the casket corner ornaments having fasteners with heads on magnetic cap panels. To that end, the assignee devised a conversion kit for supply to funeral directors for converting a casket shell corner compatible ornament into a magnetic cap panel compatible ornament. That conversion kit comprised of two magnets and two Phillips screws. Each magnet has a bore for accepting its screw. To convert the casket corner ornament, the two shoulder screws (that cooperate with the L-shaped keyhole slots in the casket shell corner) are removed, and each is replaced with one of the magnets and one of the Phillips screws. The casket corner ornament can then be attached to a magnetic cap panel for display.
While the above-described casket ornament attachment mechanism of the '423 publication and conversion kit both function as designed, nevertheless they are not without drawbacks. For example, the funeral director or funeral home owner must keep on hand several adapter plates and conversion kits, at extra cost. Each conversion kit, while separately packaged, nevertheless includes four fairly small parts which are readily lost, misplaced, etc. And, the act of converting casket corner compatible ornaments into magnetic cap panel compatible ornaments with conversion kits is time consuming.
Accordingly, it is further desirable to devise a single or universal casket ornament attachment mechanism which would permit both the generally three-dimensional figurine type casket shell corner ornaments as well as the generally two-dimensional medallion type casket lid cap panel ornaments to be readily secured to either the casket shell corner or to the casket cap magnetic cap panel. This would permit a funeral director to be able to quickly and easily attach either type of ornament to either casket location without having to change out the fastener hardware, keep on hand and keep track of loose magnets, lose screws, adapter plates, and the like.